World of BotCraft? What's this?

We received some interesting news from playcomet, the online game portal based in China which is owned by the bit torrent giant 'Bitcomet'.  This is not so much interesting based on the news itself, but the fact that they are certainly treading on dangerous trademark ground.  First, they have launched a new facebook app called 'World of BotCraft'.  They readily admit that this is a play on World of Warcraft and honestly, this by itself is not a big deal.  This is not really parody so it does cross into kindy of a gray area but who cares right?  

What does the app do? That's where things get a little more interesting.  You see this is for a game called Transforce, from the press release below you can see that it is without a doubt based directly on the Transformers™ franchise.  To give you a little background, the name of their game 'Transforce' is not even really a creative play on the well known title, it is also the actual title of the Transformers™ convention.

Now, I want to clearly point out that I am not accusing playcomet of trademark enfringement because they may certainly have a license to do this.  But, if you venture over to their site you will curiously see no references to Hasbro or copyright/trademark rights which are present on all of the officially licensed affiliates of the game.  

We have contacted playcomet to answer these questions, but so far have not heard back.  We will certainly follow up on this to let you know how things progress.  In the mean time, here is the news release, and hey it does actually look like a great game.

Official Release.

Playcomet, the leading publisher and developer of Free-to-play MMO Games, today announced that the most popular browser-based Strategy game- TransForce rolled out its long anticipated integration of Facebook Connect ( http://apps.facebook.com/transforce/ ) at the name of “World of BotCraft, which is also the virgin social game published by the Playcomet team. The move allows Facebook users to sign in the facebook account to play TransForce directly while enabling current TransForce players to connect their account with the social network.

TransForce is a free online browser strategy game where players choose the Decepticons and the Autobots and fight in the vast universe space. TransForce is closely bounded up with the Marvel comic book series and also the Film Transformers.
Once Facebook Connect has been activated, players will be able to publish their comments, and share game strategy.  Players can also quickly invite their Facebook friends to play TransForce and earn the ingame items or Matrix, a virtual currency in TransForce.

“World of BotCraft is the newest version of TransForce, embodying our team’s strengths and knowledge.” Said Newing,the project manager,” the game is no longer the Traditional Application, but with much fun applied and being applied. For example, the newly added “The Wanted System”, “Bounty Hunt System” and the Legendary Heroes. We will continue developing the new features in 2010.”

Apart from the traditional gaming features like PVP, PVE, Tribal War, the folks at the TransForce team bring World of Warcraft’s features possible in the World of BotCraft. In WOB,you can also challenge the Instances, Explore the wildlands around and beyond. What is matchless in the web browser gaming world is that WOB delivers hero levelup,equipment Upgrade and Enforcement,as well as assumes a new aspect by raising the Tactics into the role-playing level.

This is an important move for both companies. For Playcomet, it means a lot more exposure on Facebook, as their tens of thousands of existing users link their accounts and publish information to promote the game. For Facebook, it represents a big new partner for Facebook Connect, bring the Facebook users more choices to play the game.

For more about TransForce: World of BotCraft, please visit the official website http://tf.playcomet.com

The storming of the last bastion of the Demon Lord is on! Today the Runes of Magic’s new raid dungeon – the ‘Demon Stronghold’ – will open its gates. This is part of the new content patch '2.1.6 – Fall of the Demon Lord’, which Frogster will deploy across the servers on Thursday.

Together with the new raid instance, the online role-playing game is also being expanded with an additional so-called Public Encounter: ‘Bloodbath Valley’. This combat area for large groups, located in the Aotulia Volcano is divided into four stages – the challenge for adventurers in the high level area is to master them all.

The goal in ‘Bloodbath Valley’ is to stem the threat from the Naga who are receiving support from a powerful Guardian. But on the other hand, players aren’t going to be facing the waves of Naga warriors on their own: Flaming demons as well as special commandoes of Elves will battle side by side with the allied adventurers.

On a more peaceful note, it’s all starting right now with the ‘Flower Festival’, the Taborean version of Valentine’s Day. Within this in-game event amorous adventurers can plant roses or get themselves titles or costumes – including a birthday suit. In addition there’s also a new mini-game to bring a little variation to heroes' everyday routines: There’s a packed treasure chamber waiting for players who enter a labyrinthine dungeon and who single-handedly can use their wits to tackle opponents and solve some tricky tasks.

Patch ‘2.1.6 – Fall of the Demon Lord’ also implements a further epic quest series in Runes of Magic. This leads players among other places, to the ‘Great Barrier’ which once kept the sinister Naga in exile. New elite skills, improvements in the hand crafting system as well as balancing also form a part of the update’s content.

The official website has more detailed information: www.runesofmagic.com/en/demonlord-patch.html. There is also a new trailer showing the new features in action at: www.runesofmagic.com/en/videos.html.

Open Beta Concludes for Avalon Heroes

Online games publisher burda:ic today officially ended the Open Beta phase of the new online RTS RPG Avalon Heroes. Over the past three weeks, several thousand players faced a variety of DotA-inspired challenges and competed in the first two cups of the Electronic Sports League (ESL).

The official release is now on the way. As soon as February 9, all players get to battle against horrifying monsters, establish powerful guilds, and set out to become heroes. The release of Avalon Heroes will include a number of new features: six more heroes, a new battle mode map, the fourth chapter of the scenario mode, and two additional maps for the adventure mode will be made available in just a few days' time, completely free of charge. Real-time strategists and role-players prepare - the battle for honor and glory awaits!

For more information, please visit the official website www.avalonheroes.alaplaya.net.
 

Name ijji.com's Next Title

Time to knock the rust off your creative thought processes.  ijji.com has announced an unnamed online first person shootergame and you could very well get to name it.  That's right, your gaming footprint may forever be left on the game world if you are the lucky player that comes up with the title they select.  

Not only will you get the honor of such a thing, but you will walk away the happy owner of a high powered gaming PC.  There will be 5 total winners; 1 that gets the grand prize and 4 honorable mentions.  

All you need to do is head over to the official game page, review the screenshots, video, and backstory then follow through to the submit form.  The winning entry will of course be decided by NHN.

For a complete list of rules and to get your entry in, visit http://event.ijji.com/newfps.nhn